Conveyors, and more particularly auger type screw conveyors, are available in relatively large sizes for agricultural applications. Conveyors of this type typically include a tubular housing supported on wheels which are parallel and spaced apart from one another on opposing sides of the housing and fixed in orientation for rolling movement in the longitudinal direction of the housing so as to be suitable for towing by a tractor and the like. Because of the large sizes of some conveyors, these conveyors can be very difficult and awkward to navigate during transport.
Some larger agricultural conveyors are supported on first and second pairs of wheels at respective first and second laterally opposed sides of the conveyor frame. In this instance, the wheels of each pair of wheels are longitudinally spaced at opposing ends of a walking beam providing some relative suspension between the wheels. The longitudinally spaced wheels can be even more difficult to navigate during transport due to the wheels being restricted from pivoting in orientation relative to one another.
Auger moving kits are known, for example a self propelled auger transport kit available by Wheatheart, but such known systems are typically very limited in size and involve the costly addition of an auxiliary set of wheels supported on an auxiliary frame along with an additional motor suitable only for transport of smaller agricultural augers. Steering is typically accomplished in a skid steer configuration. No means are provided for steering the conveyor relative to a vehicle during transport.
Canadian Patent 2,614,538, filed Dec. 10, 2007, by Toews, discloses a steering mechanism for a conveyor when the conveyor is only supported on two wheels which are laterally spaced along a common rolling axis. The steering mechanism in the form described is not readily adaptable to two pairs of wheels supported on a walking beam suspension as found on some larger agricultural conveyors.
Various examples are known for steering the trailing wheels of a vehicle or a trailer, particularly those with longitudinally spaced pairs of wheels. Some examples are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,798 by Butler et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,443 by Mitchell and U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,669 by Kollander et al. None of the examples in the prior art are suitable for use on an agricultural conveyor for effectively steering the trailing movement of the conveyor relative to the towing vehicle.